I needed more than one pair of eyes at that moment. I wanted to see the reactions of Ziya, Refik, Sami, Canan, and Haluk all at once.

Gritting her teeth, Canan listened. Her face had tensed to the point where she looked like a plastic surgery victim: slitty eyes, a projecting forehead, elevated eyebrows, lips stretched thin, and a squared-off chin! She didn’t say a word. And if she had, her clenched lower jaw might have shattered into a thousand pieces.

Poor Haluk Pekerdem looked stunned. I wanted to fold him into my arms and comfort him. A man like him, cheated on! And with a gigolo, no less. But then again, this was no ordinary gigolo…

“Canan introduced me to Volkan!” cried Sami, springing to his feet and playing the victim. Hikmet pressed him back down into his seat.

Canan produced an artificial burst of laughter. It was so forced!

“So what if I did?” she exclaimed brazenly. “Sami needed a strong man in his life, and Volkan was certainly that. A real pro. They were the perfect match… So what?”

She shot out a cloud of smoke. She was visibly shaken. Her crossed leg swung to and fro irritably.

“I warned him. I told him to stay away from you society types. I took him in, gave him everything he wanted. But he didn’t listen. If he’d just listened,” bawled Ziya.

“That’s an important point,” I said. “But, in fact, there was no harm in Sami seeing Volkan. Excuse me, Refik, I don’t say this to break your heart. But it’s the truth. The problem was Sami’s fear and self-loathing. He was ashamed. Just as he is now.”

I stopped and looked at him. He was industriously wiping his glasses.

“That’s enough. Stop sweating and stop wiping your glasses!” I said. “I’m losing my temper, mister… And as for you, Canan Hanım, you turned his shame to your advantage. You forced Sami to send Volkan to some of your most important clients, on the house. A sweetener! And you also used him to gather information about those same clients… for blackmail purposes. If anyone had found out what you were up to, that would have been the end of Faruk. No one wants a loan shark-sorry, Nimet-who knows too much and may blackmail them one day. And as for Volkan, he was no dummy. He kept records on all his clients, shaking them down for whatever he needed. It wasn’t long before Faruk Bey found out…”

“… and intervened,” continued Nimet. “At first, he didn’t understand exactly what was happening. Some clients were making extra payments for no apparent reason. It was only much later, when Okan Bey came to visit, that we found out why. Faruk learned that some of these funds were being channeled directly into Canan’s personal account. I vividly remember the night Canan and Haluk also visited. While I was in the parlor, playing bezique with Haluk, you, Canan, shut yourself away in the office with Sami and Faruk.”

Bezique? Haluk and Nimet playing bezique in the parlor, like a couple of old maids? I could just imagine the green baize, and Haluk keeping score. I immediately banished him from the scene.

“That’s enough,” said Haluk, reacting for the first time. He sounded like a criminal lawyer making a final objection in a losing case. He stood up. “What’s all this nonsense? How can you accuse Canan?”

“Because she’s guilty!” I cried.

Haluk’s eyes widened in shock. He seemed unable to breathe for a moment. Then he turned and looked at Canan. She just shrugged a shoulder. My Haluk collapsed onto his chair.

“But why?” he groaned.

Expressed in that “why” were a multitude of anguished questions: Why was I cheated on? Where did I go wrong? How could a wife like mine tire of a man like me? What could a gigolo give her that I couldn’t?

“Money,” I answered. “Clearly, she needed more cash. She was playing a foolish and dangerous game. Blackmailing her own brother, poisoning his business relations. It was easy enough to raise money while it worked. At first, Sami was putty in her hands. Volkan made sure of that. In fact, we have letters showing how infatuated Sami Bey became with Volkan. He was even jealous. Jealous of a gigolo!”

I occasionally glanced at Ponpon out of the corner of my eye. Face a picture of astonishment, her head swiveled from one speaker to another.

“I loved him,” mumbled Sami. “More than any of you will ever know… What we had was special.”

“Not like me, you didn’t. I loved him. Understand?” Ziya said, softly sobbing at the back. “I’d have died for him! Gone to hell and back!” He sounded wretched and looked miserable. And he knew no one was listening to him.

“Well, he was my lover at the end… We dreamed of a new life together. Together for always…” Refik chimed in. “We were going to travel abroad.”

Sami’s sweaty face flushed angrily. “You! Where’d you spring from?”

Kemal, who had been sitting quietly in his wheelchair all night long, let out a low whistle and the words “This is getting complicated!”

Here we had three men, all of whom claimed to have been the love of Volkan’s life. The three of them looked at one another with tear-filled eyes. Fortunately, Refik had Volkan’s brother, Okan, for comfort. And as for Ziya, he just sobbed away quietly.

“You may well have loved him, Sami Bey, but that didn’t stop you from peddling him to others,” I said. “And it was also Sami who arranged the transfer of funds-with or without the knowledge of Faruk-to Canan’s London bank accounts. Volkan was starting to get greedy. He’d realized just how rich and powerful his customers were, and he wanted a piece of the action. Somehow, Faruk found out. And pulled the plug. Both on Sami and on Canan… Right?”

“Not really,” said Sami.

“Well, anyway,” I continued, “on that night, Sami and Canan put their plan into action. Maybe they’d cooked it up earlier. We don’t know for sure. They telephoned Volkan using Faruk Bey’s cell phone. One of them may even have taken his cell phone with them. All we know is that calls were placed to Volkan late one night. Volkan had gotten out of hand. He was threatening Sami. And Sami met with him that fateful night!”

“No, it wasn’t me!”

If he kept sweating like that he was in danger of dehydration.

“Well then, who was it?” asked Nimet. “It couldn’t have been Canan. She was at the nightclub that night. There are witnesses.”

“Oh, you mean that night?” said Ponpon, finally realizing what night we were talking about. “Of course, you came to watch my show.”

“Even I was there,” I added.

“We hired someone…” whispered Sami. A public confession. “An ex-con. We keep a few around. Sometimes they come in handy.”

Ziya, Okan, and Refik were all glaring at Sami.

“And you claim to love him…” Refik said reproachfully.

“You’re in deep shit, four-eyes! You’re gonna have to deal with me now,” Ziya growled, unleashing a series of threats outlining in some detail the agonies Sami would suffer at his hands.

Selçuk was squirming in his chair.

“Have you got any hard evidence?” he inquired.

“We’ve got a heap of documents and papers, but you’ll have to sort through them and decide what you can use,” I said.

“Let’s continue,” said Nimet, taking the floor.

“Sami killed Volkan, even if he wasn’t directly responsible. But all of the evidence pointed to Faruk. If he’d been imprisoned and out of circulation, they would have taken over the business.”

“But then Haluk Bey saved the day,” I said.

Haluk was still looking utterly crushed. And gorgeous in a new way.

“That idiot,” spat Canan. How could anyone look at a man like that with so much hatred?

Nimet and I talked rapidly in turn.

“That’s right, Haluk did all he could to defend Faruk,” said Nimet. “The case against him was full of inconsistencies. I think he may even have confided his suspicions to Haluk.”

“Yes, I did find out one thing,” Haluk said, his head bowed. “Canan was heavily overdrawn.”